An experienced natural history and botanical illustrator, Lizzie’s work appears in books and magazines around the world, on postage stamps and mugs.
She lives very happily in Hay on Wye, and works her garden studio surrounded by plants and birds.
Finding out what I’m working on,
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This is the Apple maggot Rhagoletis pomonella adult, completed for FOR Sweden, a gardening organisation.
The flies have distinctive "F" marks on their wings and their egg laying, plus the damage caused by their maggots can trash ape crops.
I loved painting the damaged apples, and the browning holes in the fruit.
#fly #diptera #applemaggot #rhagoletis #naturalhistoryillustration #sciart #entomology #insectart #Pests #Apple
I`ve been painting apple blossom over the past couple of weeks for a commission.
I always prefer working from life to working from photos. But there are challenges. The speed at which apple blossom buds open is alarming, and hard to keep up with. Luckily only one of the sprigs I was painting decided to shed all its` petals as I painted, though.
Close inspection of the petals shows many have pink triangles of colour with pronounced edges, and that most of the colour appears on the outside of the petals. There is also evidence of alteration in pigmentation depending on whether or not the blossom is in direct sun, or in shade.
It`s such a good year for it! The orchards are frothy with flowers, and the gentle sounds of buzzing bees is positively bucolic.
Illustrations completed in watercolour, (with a big emphasis on Opera rose, Cadmium yellow light, Cobalt blue, and Permanent magenta).
The varieties shown here are Channel beauty, Col-afallen, and Knight bishop (in progress)
#blossom #appleblossom #malus #Apple #orchard #botanicalillustration #botanicalart #paintingblossom #sciart
This is a speeded up film of me illustrating the Field Fleawort, Tephroseris integrifolia
It`s 3 hours of painting condensed into one and a half minutes. if only my brush worked so fast in real life!
It`s a pretty wild flower, often overlooked, related to ragworts and dandelions. I love illustrating plants with pale green leaves like this, you have to use so much blue in the colour mixing.
Completed for a fold-out field guide to wild flowers for The Field Studies Council
#botanicalillustration #sciart #fleawort #tephrosis #byhand #watercolourpainting #watercolours #watercolor #compositeflowers
This is a #botanicalillustration study of the #potato plant i did for a horticultural society in Sweden.
It shows foods made from potato, and the entire plant, as well as how to propagate potatoes by #chitting.
I hardly ever get to do #foodillustration, so this was a treat.
Latest blog out is all about the Fabaceae, or Pea family:
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2025/04/wildflower-families-fabaceae-the-pea-family/
It`s one in a series of blogs I`ve been doing on common wildflower families, and how to recognize similarities in species belonging to each family.
For the pea family (which is also known as the Leguminaceae or legumes family), you`re looking for pods, a distinct flower shape, paired stipules, nitrogen-fixing root nodules, and tendrils. Have a read and it`ll all make perfect sense!
#wildflowers #wildflowerfamilies #flowerfamilies #botany #botanicalillustration #BotanicalArt #flowerpainting #Fabaceae #peas #leguminaceae #legumes #sciart
This is an illustration of the Sweet Orange, Citrus sinensis.
One of the things an illustration can do that a photo can`t is to combine fruiting and flowering processes at the same time. This is usually artifice on the part of the illustrator.
However, in this case, the oranges take so long to mature that their ripening overlaps with the flowers which will become the fruit for the following year. So fruit and flower do indeed appear on the same plant at the same time.
Orange blossom is such a lovely scent. I`d love it if someone used my work on perfume bottles or beauty products (although they`d need to commission an illustration of Bitter orange, not Sweet orange). In this case, the illustration was completed for a honey jar label.
#botanicalillustration #citrus #orange #sweetorange #orangeblossom #orangeblossomhoney #sciartt #naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration
I`ve just seen some of the seed packets I`ve been designing for Roselyn seeds, ready to hit the shelves
It`s lovely seeing work in context, and comparing the illustration with the original.
There`s another design ready to be made into a packet, and I`ve just started work on another four designs for Roselyn.
Each species shows the plant and a pollinator associated with it, against a blue summer sky.
The wildlife garden mix is a different idea, and for now is being used to package any seeds there`s not yet a specific design for.
#packagingdesign #packaging #seeds #redcampion #cornflowers #buttercups #oxeyedaisy #botanicalillustration #botanicalart #wildflowers #sciart #naturalscienceillustration #naturalhistoryillustration
This is my botanical illustration of Betony Stachys officinalis.
It`s a common plant, but often overlooked or mistaken for dead nettle.
I`ve added pictures of the work in progress & the initial pencil rough sketch which the botanists need to approve before I add colour.
I`ve also added a couple of close up details which show how I use the paint in layers to suggest texture on the bumpy leaves, and how the hairiness of the leaves is shown with either grey lines of watercolour on the leaf edges overlapping the white paper) or in white gouache (where the leaf margins overlap other darker leaves behind them).
Completed for a fold-out wild flower identification guide for @field_studies_council
#botanicalillustration #betony #stachys #stachysofficinalis #sciart
